


Faithful Friends Who Are Dear To Us

by babykid528



Series: Happy Holiday Fic Gifts [5]
Category: Elementary (TV)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Family Feels, Friendship, Gen, Holidays, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-30
Updated: 2014-12-30
Packaged: 2018-03-04 09:10:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3062180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/babykid528/pseuds/babykid528
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A little moment of holiday domesticity for Joan and Sherlock. [And Ms. Hudson!]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Faithful Friends Who Are Dear To Us

**Author's Note:**

  * For [curvasud](https://archiveofourown.org/users/curvasud/gifts).



Joan wakes up gradually.

She comes out of sleep slowly, stretching in bed, eyes still closed. It’s minutes before she opens them and searches out the glowing display of her alarm clock.

_10:15AM_

She blinks at it, confused, before reaching out for her phone to find out what time it really is. Her phone just confirms it though.

It’s 10:15AM.

It’s 10:15AM and Sherlock has neither barged into her room, called her phone incessantly, left Clyde in her bed, nor blown something up downstairs. He’s actually let her sleep in. Which, of course, makes her suspicious as hell.

She gets herself out of bed, takes care of her morning rituals, dons her robe, and heads down to see what’s up.

 “Good morning, Joan.”

Joan smiles before replying, “Good morning, Ms. Hudson. I hope we didn’t create too much of a mess for you this week.”

Joan says ‘we,’ but they both know she really means ‘he.’ Sherlock makes all manner of messes himself, and Joan tries to keep as tidy as possible. It was a point of contention between the two of them before Ms. Hudson agreed to help them out weekly.

“Not at all,” Ms. Hudson replies. She gestures with her head then before letting Joan know, “Sherlock is in the kitchen.”

Joan smiles again and thanks her before passing through the room, letting Ms. Hudson get back to work.

“Ah, Watson,” Sherlock says as soon as Joan enters the room.

She takes note of the food stuff he’s accumulated on the counter and gives him a funny look.

“Are you storing some kind of experiment in the fridge?” she asks.

“No, not at all,” he tells her, absently.

“What’s all that food doing on the counter then?” she asks, confused.

Sherlock blinks at her before returning his gaze to the spread before him.

“Ah, that would be our holiday dinner,” he says.

She cocks her head at him and he rushes to correct himself.

“Well, our holiday dinner and Ms. Hudson’s,” he says. “As she is here on Christmas Eve, cleaning up after us, and as this marks her one year anniversary of keeping our house, it seemed only right to extend to her a dinner invitation.”

Joan nods, moving to grab some coffee before continuing this conversation. Sherlock is quicker though and he passes her a fresh mug, doctored with cream just the way she likes it.

“I was going to bring you a tray soon,” he tells her, motioning to the platter of pastries on the table, “but I didn’t want to wake you.”

“Thank you,” Joan says, taking a sip of the warm coffee.

She’s not sure, exactly, what inspired Sherlock to go to all of this trouble. Or why today of all days he has decided she should be allowed to get a full night of sleep. She could just chalk it up to the holidays, but she knows that’s not really it. He would have no qualms about bothering her for a case, even on Christmas Eve.

It appears to simply be an affectionate gesture.

Sherlock’s overt affectionate gestures are rare and far between, but they occur just often enough for Joan to feel certain that she matters to him. She tries to make it clear, in return, that he’s an important part of her life too – one of the most important parts – even if she doesn’t come right out and say the words as often as she wants to.

As she silently continues to drink her coffee, Sherlock turns back to the food and the open recipe book she now sees propped up before him. He seems perplexed by something on the list and she takes a step closer to give it a look. It’s not the hardest meal to create, but it’s a holiday classic, and it will take considerable time to prep everything that goes into it.

She says as much out loud to him and he hums his agreement.

“If you’d like, I could help you with it,” she offers then.

He gives her a funny little look then before his mouth softens into an almost-smile.

“I would appreciate that, yes,” he tells her.

She smiles at him then and takes the last sip of her coffee. She rinses the mug out in the sink and leaves it to dry on the rack.

“Just let me get changed first and I’ll be right back,” she tells him.

“Wonderful,” he replies, watching her go, “Thank you, Watson.”

His gratitude warms Joan deep inside in a way that not even his offers of food and coffee and sleeping in can. She walks hurriedly toward the steps, noting the curious smile Ms. Hudson is wearing as she continues to dust. Joan refuses to let herself work on figuring out what that smile might mean though. After all, it’s Christmas Eve. They all deserve a bit of a break from deducing.


End file.
